MIT OpenCourseWare | Free Online Course Materials

Nineteen-year-old Freesia Gaul built a VR prototype thanks to MIT OpenCourseWare classes that provided “a solid foundation of knowledge and problem-solving abilities.” Stefanie Koperniak | MIT Open Learning When Freesia Gaul discovered MIT Open Learning’s OpenCourseWare at just 14 years old, it opened up a world of learning far beyond what her classrooms could offer. Her parents had started a skiing company, and the seasonal work meant that Gaul had to change schools every six months. Growing up in small towns in Australia and Canada, she relied on the internet to fuel her curiosity. “I went to 13 different schools, which was hard because you’re in a different educational system every single time,” says Gaul. “That’s one of the reasons I gravitated toward online learning and teaching myself. Knowledge is something that exists beyond a curriculum.” The small towns she lived in often didn’t have a lot of resources, she says, so a computer served as a main tool for learning. She enjoyed engaging with Wikipedia, ultimately researching topics and writing and editing content for pages. In 2018, she discovered MIT OpenCourseWare, part of MIT Open Learning, and took her first course. OpenCouseWare offers free, online, open educational resources from more than 2,500 MIT undergraduate and graduate courses. “I really got started with the OpenCourseWare introductory electrical engineering classes, because I couldn’t find anything else quite like it online,” says Gaul, who was initially drawn to courses on circuits and electronics, such as 6.002 (Circuits and Electronics) and 6.01SC (Introduction to Electrical Engineering and Computer Science). “It really helped me in terms of understanding how electrical engineering worked in a practical sense, and I just started modding things.” In true MIT “mens et manus” (“mind and hand”) fashion, Gaul spent much of her childhood building and inventing, especially when she was able to access a 3D printer. She says that a highlight was when she built a life-sized, working version of a Mario Kart, constructed out of materials she had printed. Gaul calls herself a “serial learner,” and has taken many OpenCourseWare courses. In addition to classes on circuits and electronics, she also took courses in linear algebra, calculus, and quantum physics — in which she took a particular interest. When she was 15, she participated in Qubit by Qubit. Hosted by The Coding School, in collaboration with universities (including MIT) and tech companies, this two-semester course introduces high schoolers to quantum computing and quantum physics. During that time she started a blog called On Zero, representing the “zero state” of a qubit. “The ‘zero state’ in a quantum computer is the representation of creativity from nothing, infinite possibilities,” says Gaul. For the blog, she found different topics and researched them in depth. She would think of a topic or question, such as “What is color?” and then explore it in great detail. What she learned eventually led her to start asking questions such as “What is a hamiltonian?” and teaching quantum physics alongside PhDs. Building on these interests, Gaul chose to study quantum engineering at the University of New South Wales. She notes that on her first day of university, she participated in iQuHack, the MIT Quantum Hackathon. Her team worked to find a new way to approximate the value of a hyperbolic function using quantum logic, and received an honorable mention for “exceptional creativity.” Gaul’s passion for making things continued during her college days, especially in terms of innovating to solve a problem. When she found herself on a train, wanting to code a personal website on a computer with a dying battery, she wondered if there might be a way to make a glove that can act as a type of Bluetooth keyboard — essentially creating a way to type in the air. In her spare time, she started working on such a device, ultimately finding a less expensive way to build a lightweight, haptic, gesture-tracking glove with applications for virtual reality (VR) and robotics. Gaul says she has always had an interest in VR, using it to create her own worlds, reconstruct an old childhood house, and play Dungeons and Dragons with friends. She discovered a way to put into a glove some small linear resonant actuators, which can be found in a smartphone or gaming controller, and map to any object in VR so that the user can feel it. An early prototype that Gaul put together in her dorm room received a lot of attention on YouTube. She went on to win the People’s Choice award for it at the SxSW Sydney 2025 Tech and Innovation Festival. This design also sparked her co-founding of the tech startup On Zero, named after her childhood blog dedicated to the love of creation from nothing. Gaul sees the device, in general, as a way of “paying it forward,” making improved human-computer interaction available to many — from young students to professional technologists. She hopes to enable creative freedom in as many as she can. “The mind is just such a fun thing. I want to empower others to have the freedom to follow their curiosity, even if it’s pointless on paper. “I’ve benefited from people going far beyond what they needed to do to help me,” says Gaul. “I see OpenCourseWare as a part of that. The free courses gave me a solid foundation of knowledge and problem-solving abilities. Without these, it wouldn’t be possible to do what I’m doing now.” This story was originally published on MIT News.

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Hinata Yamahara

High School Student

United States

High schooler Hinata Yamahara’s interest in urban planning was nurtured by free MIT resources, including OpenCourseWare. Lauren Rebecca Thacker | MIT Open Learning Hinata Yamahara was 10 years old, on a family trip to Osaka, Japan, when he started riding the train alone. Those train rides sparked an interest in something he didn’t have words for at the time — how cities are built, and how people navigate them. Now at 17 and applying to colleges, Yamahara has made the connection that investigating cities and how they work is a foundation for urban planning. MIT OpenCourseWare, part of MIT Open Learning, helped him develop knowledge and deepen his passion for walkable, community-oriented urban spaces. At the time of his first, fateful Osaka train ride, Yamahara lived in Atlanta, after having spent most of his elementary school years in rural Tennessee. Before that, he and his family had lived in Los Angeles. In all those places, he says, it was difficult for kids to get around. In fact, getting around without a car could be a challenge for anyone. Whenever he visited family in Japan, he was in awe of the efficiency of the train system and the ease of learning how to navigate it, in addition to the mixed-use buildings that combined commercial and residential spaces. As a 10-year-old, he simply thought they “were really cool” and quite different from what he saw at home. Now, he reflects on the efficient use of space in a country that is much smaller than the expansive United States. Back at home, Yamahara continued to reimagine the spaces around him, often printing out satellite imagery and drawing new possibilities over what existed. “Maybe instead of a giant parking lot, I’d draw a subway station and connect it to another part of the map,” he says. “But it was all imaginary. I didn’t know what was possible in terms of regulations or looking at past examples. So, I started to do research and kept coming across OpenCourseWare.” He remembers a moment of confusion, followed by one of excitement: “What is OpenCourseWare?” and, “Wait, everything is free!?” OpenCourseWare, an open publication of course materials from across the MIT curriculum, allows users to browse content at their own pace. Learners can watch video lectures, read course notes, and hear from faculty experts, with no enrollment fees or start dates. Yamahara dove into the content, starting with 11.001J (Introduction to Urban Design and Development). He has since accessed a variety of courses and counts 11.948 (Power of Place: Media Technology, Youth, and City Design and Development) and 11.304J (Site and Infrastructure Systems Planning) among the most memorable. Exploring OpenCourseWare resources gave him a strong foundation to take his interest in urban planning and redesign into the real world. In summer 2025, Yamahara completed an internship with an Atlanta-area real estate firm working on a redesign project with a city agency. “Right now, this city has a downtown area with a lot of parking lots and empty retail spaces. I’m getting to learn firsthand how to develop it into something else,” he explains. “I’m part of meetings where we brainstorm how to create a community feeling, how to make a space creative and walkable, and how to make it somewhere people really want to be.” According to Yamahara, the experience draws on his appreciation for Japanese efficiency, as well as American inclusivity and his deep knowledge of zoning regulations, community-centered design, and transit equity — all gained through OpenCourseWare materials and resources. As Yamahara looks toward college and his future, he says he sees two paths influenced by MIT’s free educational resources. On one path, he studies urban planning, as OpenCourseWare materials have only reaffirmed his passion for the field and given him knowledge and confidence. On another path, he imagines using his time as an undergraduate to explore other interests, including aviation and real estate. On that path, OpenCourseWare would allow him to continue his urban planning education independently. He’s grateful that he could take advantage of OpenCourseWare resources without submitting an application and considering tuition and financial aid. All he needed was an interest and a determination to learn, and he had both. “OpenCourseWare has helped me grow from a kid with questions into a student designing solutions,” Yamahara says. “I still ride the train in the U.S. and Japan, but now, I bring a vision with me, too.” To explore additional lifelong learning offerings from MIT, visit MIT Learn. This story was originally published on MIT News.

Retired professor Salim Al-Hassanieh has turned to MIT Open Learning’s OpenCourseWare resources for decades, enriching his research and teaching. Lauren Rebecca Thacker | MIT Open Learning Salim Al-Hassanieh has moved a lot over the course of his education and career. Born in Syria, he received his PhD from Université de Rennes in France and taught management sciences, organizational development, and information systems at University of Damascus and institutions in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. These days, he’s retired and divides his time between Syria and Germany. But Al-Hassanieh knows that with MIT OpenCourseWare, part of MIT Open Learning, you don’t need to move at all to experience American higher education. “I frequently recommended OpenCourseWare to my students and colleagues, particularly those with international aspirations,” he says. “I often told them, ‘If you want to study in America without leaving your home, go to MIT OpenCourseWare.’” Al-Hassanieh first remembers becoming aware of MIT and the Sloan School of Management in 1997, when he was researching a book project. Years later, when he was working on another book, “Managing by Creativity,” he revisited MIT and discovered OpenCourseWare. “When I found OpenCourseWare, I was immediately drawn to the quality, openness, and academic rigor of the platform,” he recalls. “I continue to consult OpenCourseWare regularly and receive its newsletter to this day, at the age of 80 years old.” He views open education resources as a beacon, saying that they can be a “vital gateway” for learners who may not otherwise have access to educational materials or the ability to travel. Courses on project management, leadership, organizational behavior, creativity, entrepreneurship, and generative AI have aided Al-Hassanieh in his research and teaching over the years. He stresses that it is not just the course content that is so impactful, but also the practical, forward-looking style of instruction. Some lectures, particularly those which emphasize systems thinking, inspired Al-Hassanieh’s own curriculum design and left a lasting impression. The clear structure and self-paced nature of OpenCourseWare courses helped Al-Hassanieh improve his academic English, which in turn created new publishing opportunities for him and his students. In 2012, he wrote a cultural book in English, “Illuminations on Arab-Islamic Public Administration Contributions,” and, in 2024, wrote an English-Arabic encyclopedic dictionary called “Your Comprehensive Guide to Success in Knowledge Management,” published by the Arab Administrative Development Organization (ARADO). “My research and my students’ learning journeys benefited from my English language learning,” he says. “I often encouraged my students to use OpenCourseWare not only to deepen their subject knowledge, but also to strengthen their English in an academic context.” Al-Hassanieh continues to learn from OpenCourseWare — even in retirement. He is actively conducting research, examining ideas relevant to political transitions, especially in the context of Syria. He explores lectures on generative AI and just this year wrote the Arabic-language book “Unlocking the Potential of GAI,” also published by ARADO. In his retirement, Al-Hassanieh prioritizes hope and peace alongside learning. He spends six months of the year in Berlin to be close to his adult children, who are surgeons there. He follows the news of changing politics in Syria and the world and says, “I hope that resources like OpenCourseWare can continue to showcase a narrative of knowledge sharing and educational empowerment.”

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